ESWP: International Bridge Conference®: Seminars

2008 Seminars

The Use of Strut and Tie Modeling in Bridge Design - $125 (Additional Registration)

Presented: Tuesday, June 3, 2008, AM Session

Moderator: Dr. Barney T. Martin, P.E., President, Modjeski and Masters

This seminar will cover the history of the Strut and Tie method, steps for using the method, design examples of bridge elements and automated design tools.

In addition to Dr. Martin, presenters will include Dr. David Sanders of the University of Nevada, Reno, and Dr. Daniel Kuchma of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Getting the Best Proposal – and Project - $125 (Additional Registration)

Presented: Tuesday, June 3, 2008, PM Session

Moderator: G. M. (Pat) Stricklin, President, GMS Consulting, Inc.

Presenters: Patrick Flaherty - Fluor Corporation, Robert H. Luffy – American Bridge Company, Ralph Salamie – Kiewit Pacific Structures District, Brian Reynolds – Zurich North America

In today’s large project civil construction environment, a serious situation exists, in that there are frequently more project opportunities than there are qualified contractors to pursue them. While this will not last forever, owners and engineers must look closely at the requirements they place on proposers for major civil/bridge projects, if they want to receive competent and responsible proposals. This is especially true for projects being procured using the design-build approach.

Recently, several major projects have gone begging for competition, with the result being that the owner either received no response to the RFP, or there was only one competitor and the pricing was well over budget. Another recent problem is that because there are so few qualified teams even responding to the initial Request for Qualifications (RFQ), less qualified teams are being included on the “short list”. This has resulted in contract awards to teams who have submitted unreasonably low price proposals, with the owners receiving a lower quality end product.

These major design-build projects require the investment of significant resources to prepare a competitive proposal, and the stipends typically offered cover about 25% of the actual proposal costs. Therefore, contractors are becoming more selective as to where they commit their bidding resources. The best qualified contractors will walk away from bidding opportunities if they feel, a) the contract terms are too onerous, b) the scope is not clear and open to too much interpretation, or c) the evaluation and award criteria do not provide an “even playing field”. They want the type of competition that allows the project to be won on innovation, not mistakes or misinterpretation – truly the “best value.”

The panel assembled to address these issues includes senior representatives of three of the major national civil/bridge contractors, and a major surety representative. They will address the contractual, design and scheduling issues that create an environment for providing a best value, competitive proposal – and will give the owner a high quality final product, within budget and on or ahead of schedule. Major topics to be addressed will include:

> Fair and reasonable RFQ process.
> Appropriate design levels for the RFP.
> Technical “traps” to avoid.
> Reasonable Risk Sharing.
> Work restrictions that affect cost and schedule.
> Reasonable contract terms and conditions, including:

o Insurance and bonding considerations.
o Standard of Care.
o Liability of the parties.
o Hazardous materials.
o Differing site conditions.

Patrick Flaherty - Fluor Corporation

Patrick (Pat) Flaherty serves as Senior Vice President and Business Line Lead for Fluor’s global Infrastructure business. In this role, he is responsible for successful execution of Public Private Partnerships, Design-Build, Program Management and Construction projects within the transportation, wind power, telecommunications, commercial and institutional and healthcare markets. Within the transportation industry the company is currently active in the road, rail, bridge, and airport market segments.
During his 30 year career at Fluor, Mr. Flaherty has undertaken assignments in the Middle East, Europe, the United States and the UK. Prior to his current assignment he was responsible for sales, marketing and business development for Fluor's Infrastructure business where he grew the business backlog to in excess of US$3 billion. Previous assignments include Managing Director for Fluor's UK Operations, leading the company's entry into the Public Private Partnership market in the UK and Europe, leading the company's sales efforts in the telecommunications market in the USA, corporate assignments in marketing and strategy and leading the company's project finance and accounting activities in Europe and the Middle East.

Mr. Flaherty also serves on various boards to represent Fluor's shareholdings in PPP projects.

Robert H. Luffy – American Bridge Company

Robert H. (Bob) Luffy is President and CEO of American Bridge Company, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering in 1972 and a Masters of Business Administration degree in 1979, both from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Pennsylvania and has been active in the construction industry for almost 40 years, 20 of those years as President and CEO of a major construction company.

Mr. Luffy is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Highway Engineers and the Construction Industry Round Table. He is also very active within the civic community of Pittsburgh, where he served as Chairman of the Pittsburgh Zoo for five years and is the former Chairman of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania, where he has been a Board member for the past 25 years. Mr. Luffy is a member of the Board of Visitors for the University Of Pittsburgh School of Engineering where he won the 1997 Distinguished Alumni Award for the University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering. He has been involved in the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program where he was named Veteran of the Year in 1990. Mr. Luffy was the recipient of The Moles 2004 Outstanding Achievements in Construction Award for Non-Members, as well as being the recipient of the William Metcalf award given by the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania for Outstanding Achievement. He is also a Board member of the Allegheny Conference where he serves on the Transportation Committee.

Bob resides in Franklin Park, Pennsylvania with his wife Debbie and they have five grown children.


Ralph Salamie – Kiewit Pacific Structures District

Ralph Salamie has a Bachelors of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and he is a registered engineer in the state of Missouri. He has had a 29-year career in bridge construction, with the majority of that time managing and estimating segmental and cable-stay bridges across the nation, including:

  • San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge, Skyway – $1.2B Precast segmental bridge in Oakland, CA
  • The “Big I” - a $222M interstate/interchange reconstruction, including 54 bridges, seven of these employing precast segmental construction, in Albuquerque, NM
  • Clark Bridge - $36M cable-stay bridge over the Mississippi River near St. Louis, MO
  • Robert E. Lee Bridge - $36M cast-in-place segmental bridge over the James River in Richmond, VA

For the past 4 years, Mr. Salamie has served as Business Development Manager for Kiewit, with his primary focus on procuring major design-build structuralprojects nationwide. These projects include:

  • Indian River Inlet Bridge - $220M design-build cable-stayed bridge in Delaware
  • A25 and A30 - $461M and $1.2B PPP interstate construction projects in Montreal, Canada
  • Port Mann Bridge - $2B PPP project including a new bridge over the Fraser River and reconstruction/improvements to Canada Highway 1 in Vancouver, BC, Canada
  • I-405 widening program - Interstate widening program covering several major design-build contracts in Seattle, WA


Brian Reynolds – Zurich North America

Brian Reynolds is Vice President of the International Surety Division for Zurich North America in Baltimore, Maryland. As a senior underwriter in the International Department, Mr. Reynolds manages a domestic book of business that comprises some of the largest foreign-owned North American contract surety accounts, and surety opportunities with foreign affiliates within the Zurich Financial Services Group. Prior to joining Zurich North America, he served as a senior Latin American surety underwriter for a Bermuda-based multi-line insurance company; and, as a financial analyst for a US-based surety company. As a certified public accountant, Brian served as a surety and construction claims consultant within the construction industry practice group of an international accounting firm. Brian has both graduate and undergraduate degrees in Business Administration, Finance, and Accounting from the University of Utah.

Integral Abutments - $125 (Additional Registration)

Presented: Wednesday, June 4, 2008, AM Session

Moderator: Bryan J. Spangler, P.E., Senior Technical Advisor, Michael Baker Jr., Inc.

This seminar will focus on proper detailing for integral abutment bridges and how they can best be utilized. It will also cover full-scale test results from several bridges to demonstrate the functionality of these structures.

In addition to Mr. Spangler, presenters will include Mr. Harry L. White, P.E. of the New York Department of Transportation, Mr. William C. Koller, P.E. of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Mr. Jeffrey Volz, P.E. of the Pennsylvania State University, and Mr. Vasant Mistry, P.E. of the Federal Highway Administration.

Through special arrangements with NHI and their official course instructors, IBC is pleased to be able to offer a 50% discount to the State, County, and City DOT personnel for the two NHI LRFD seminars given in Pittsburgh, PA in conjunction with the International Bridge Conference. In order to avoid disappointment, please register by May 20, 2008 to hold your place in these popular classes at the discounted price. (The course fees listed in the IBC Preliminary Program, i.e., $400 for each course are being revised effective immediately to $200.00 for City, County, and State DOT registrants only. The fee will be adjusted automatically for all City, County, or State DOT registrants who have already signed up.)

The two, two-day NHI classes subject to this unprecedented discount are: LRFD for Highway Bridge Superstructures –Steel and LRFD for Highway Bridge Superstructures –Concrete. The classes are being offered in conjunction with the IBC Conference June 2-4, 2008 in Pittsburgh, PA.

LRFD for Highway Bridge Superstructures - Steel (2-Day) - $400 (Additional Registration)

Presented: Monday/Tuesday, June 2/3, 8:00 am-5:00 pm

Presented by NHI

This new course expands the suite of FHWA services to assist State and local governments in a successful implementation of load and resistance factor design (LRFD). The course promotes the philosophy of the LRFD design platform and establishes the motivation for LRFD as the reassurance that safe design practices are being applied where needed. For structural applications, the curriculum follows the AASHTO “LRFD Bridge Design Specifications,” 3rd Edition, 2004 (AASHTO LRFD), including the approved 2005 and 2006 Interims.

This course is a combination of instructor-led discussions and workshop exercises. It includes LRFD theory applied to design examples and illustrates step-by-step LRFD design procedures. The training includes the extensive use of student exercises and example problems to demonstrate overall design, detailing, and construction principles addressed in the reference materials, and provides hands-on experience in the AASHTO LRFD design and detailing of steel superstructures. Exercise and example problems are based on components of overall comprehensive bridge design examples using AASHTO LRFD and provide comparisons between ASD, LFD, and LRFD design methods where meaningful.

The curriculum materials are comprised of a comprehensive design manual, FHWA Publication No. FHWA NHI 06-001, lecture and workshop exercises intended to promote or enhance a working knowledge of the AASHTO LRFD specification, and a participant workbook for lecture notes and exercises.

The curriculum material contains the following major topics:

• Preliminary design concepts for steel superstructures
• Steel I-girder design (including miscellaneous steel detail design)
• Bearing design

OUTCOMES: Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

•Describe the steel bridge superstructure design and construction process in accordance with the AASHTO LRFD specifications
•Identify the application of appropriate AASHTO LRFD specification articles dealing with selection of bridge type, size, and location; bridge economics; steel bridge superstructure design; and bearings selection and design
•Demonstrate the use of the AASHTO LRFD specification requirements for steelsuperstructure design through the completion of step-by-step procedures, student exercises, and design examples
•Successfully complete applicable learning outcome assessments with a combined score of 70 percent or higher.

TARGET AUDIENCE:This course has been developed for the needs of practicing public and private sector structural and bridge engineers with 1-10 years of experience. The primary audience is agency and consultant structural designers. Pre-training Competencies: Individuals attending this course should have a minimum BSCE degree and have a working knowledge of the AASHTO LRFD or the “AASHTO Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges,” and have relevant design experience using either of these specifications on at least one bridge superstructure.

LRFD for Highway Bridge Superstructures - Concrete (2-Day) - $400 (Additional Registration)

Presented: Tuesday/Wednesday, June 3/4, 8:00 am-5:00 pm

Presented by NHI

This new course expands the suite of FHWA services to assist State and local governments in a successful implementation of load and resistance factor design (LRFD). The course promotes the philosophy of the LRFD design platform and establishes the motivation for LRFD as the reassurance that safe design practices are being applied where needed. For structural applications, the curriculum follows the AASHTO “LRFD Bridge Design Specifications,” 3rd Edition, 2004 (AASHTO LRFD), including the approved 2005 and 2006 Interims.

This course is a combination of instructor-led discussions and workshop exercises. It includes LRFD theory applied to design examples and illustrates step-by-step LRFD design procedures. The training includes the extensive use of student exercises and example problems to demonstrate overall design, detailing, and construction principles addressed in the reference materials, and provides hands-on experience in the AASHTO LRFD design and detailing of concrete superstructures. Exercise and example problems are based on components of overall comprehensive bridge design examples using AASHTO LRFD and provide comparisons between ASD, LFD, and LRFD design methods where meaningful.

The curriculum materials are comprised of a comprehensive design manual, FHWA Publication No. FHWA NHI 06-001, lecture and workshop exercises intended to promote or enhance a working knowledge of the AASHTO LRFD specification, and a participant workbook for lecture notes and exercises.

The curriculum material contains the following major topics:

•Preliminary design concepts for prestressed concrete
superstructures
• Pretensioned concrete I-girder design
• Continuous pretensioned concrete I-girder design
• Staged construction of prestressed concrete girder bridges
• Bearing design

OUTCOMES: Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

•Describe the concrete bridge superstructure design and construction process in accordance with the AASHTO LRFD specifications
•Identify the application of appropriate AASHTO LRFD specification articles dealing with selection of bridge type, size, and location; bridge economics; concrete bridge superstructure design; and bearings selection and design
•Demonstrate the use of the AASHTO LRFD specification requirements for concrete superstructure design through the completion of step-by-step procedures, student exercises, and design examples
•Successfully complete applicable learning outcome assessments with a combined score of 70 percent or higher.

TARGET AUDIENCE: This course has been developed for the needs of practicing public and private sector structural and bridge engineers with 1-10 years of experience. The primary audience is agency and consultant structural designers. Pre-training Competencies: Individuals attending this course should have a minimum BSCE degree and have a working knowledge of the AASHTO LRFD or the “AASHTO Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges,” and have relevant design experience using either of these specifications on at least one bridge superstructure.

A list of Workshops can be found on the Workshops page.

 

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